The first
British Agility Champion
 The
British have their first Agility Champion. On August
bank holiday Monday, at the Wilton agility event in the north of England, Lesley Olden from the
Romsey area in the south, won her third Agility certificate with Loobie under the judging eye
of John Tallentire. She was
the right handler with the right skills and the right dog. Agility pioneer
Peter Lewis salutes Lesley Olden and Ag.Ch. Waggerland Whoosh of Nedlo.
Answering to the name of Loobie, this
excellent Working sheepdog showed her class by beating a strong field as she has done on two
previous occasions this year. The other two Agility
certificates were won at the Agility Club event in June under Gerry Eckersley, and Rugby DTC
under Steve Croxford. Lesley had already had a good
weekend when she won one of the Semi-finals to send Loobie to the Olympia Chum Finals in
December. Together they won that event in 1999 which was
Lesley’s third Olympia win. I salute this latest
achievement and I am proud to have been able to help her.
I have always said that an over
simplification of how to succeed in a dog training discipline at the top level only requires
three factors. They are the right handler with the right
information with the right dog. Lesley certainly
was the right handler and I believe she has that natural gift to train dogs which could lead
her to succeed at any dog training discipline she sets her mind to.
Therefore as the right handler perhaps I gave Lesley the right information when she
started for it was not long before she was able to work things out for herself.
Certainly she had the right dog for the pedigree is that of winning dogs.
However is it just coincidence that so many of Lesley’s dogs seem to be the right one?
Agility
Championship Status
Although Britain started the sport, this is the first year it has been possible to have
an Agility Champion and such dogs need to be eligible for the Advanced class.
We have six official classes, with
Advanced being the top class. A dog must win its way through classes, and to reach the Advanced
class they must have won four times in total, two of which must be agility in either
Intermediate, Senior or Open. This allows them to enter the Advanced class at a Championship
Agility event. Under FCI rules Advanced would be the equivalent of Agility 4 but the FCI only
have three official classes.
A Championship Advanced Agility class
then consists of one Jumping and one Agility round with points awarded in each part on the
basis of one point for first two for second etc. The
twenty dogs with the lowest accumulated total are then eligible to compete in a final Agility
round. If the winner has a clear round in this final they are awarded one Agility certificate.
Three agility certificates won at three different events under three different judges
make the dog an Agility Champion.
A Working Sheepdog is a Border Collie
where perhaps one piece of paper is missing yet most have full pedigrees going back may
generations. WSDs are not recognised as a pedigree breed
in the UK so, therefore, they are not eligible for the FCI World Agility Championships.
Therefore along with others of high quality, Loobie could not be considered for the
British team in Portugal this year. What a shame for
they have to be one of the best combinations in the sport and Lesley has proved she can handle
pressure!
Lesley is also active administratively
as she is one of the two representatives from the Agility Council to the Working Trials
Obedience and Agility sub committee of the Kennel Club.
 About
the author
Peter Lewis has spent most of his life studying dogs and their behaviour. While these
days much of his work is for veterinary surgeons who refer clients that have dogs
with behavioural problems, his skill in this sector of dogs has been strongly influenced by his
vast experience as a dog handler. For very many years, not only did he teach pet dog owners,
he also achieved much success at the highest levels in competition dog training including
Obedience, Agility and Working Trials.
He is highly regarded as having
played a major part in developing Agility. Though not handling at present because of
orthopaedic problems known as knees and hips, he is still teaching and judging agility, nearly
always in another country. So far this year he has visited Germany, Finland, Belgium, Japan,
Italy, Prague.
Along with Mary Ray, he has
turned Heelwork to Music into another dog competition. Currently he is chairing a working party
looking at official rules for Heelwork to Music. He is also very much involved with the Kennel
Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme while working towards KC accreditation as a dog
trainer/behaviourist. He is still writing books and articles about many facets of dog training
and behaviour. Together with all this experience, Peter has to be one of the most knowledgeable
all round dog trainers and problem solvers of this era.
Whatever spare time he has is spent
growing fuchsias, Begonias and Bougainvilleas.
At the end of the month, he's off to
the FCI World Agility Championships in Portugal so he is learning how to sing 'Two nil for the
Eng-er-lund!'
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